Violation of a sacred place. — The violation of churches, cemeteries and, in general, of anything whatsoever consecrated to divine worship is determined by acts or facts which constitute the elements of the crime of sacrilege (q.v.), a species of irreligion by which one sins indirectly against God by offering insult to those things which are destined for His worship. Since persons, places and things can be the object of consecration, it is customary to distinguish between personal, local and real sacrilege.
The acts which may constitute a violation of churches, cemeteries, etc., are: the crime of homicide (and equally to be considered suicide), a great shedding of human blood wilfully and insultingly provoked; the burial of an infidel or of an excommunicated person after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence; and finally other impious and irreverent uses (can. 1172). It is expressly required that such acts be certain and notorious and that they have been committed in such places. The above enumeration is exhaustive and cannot therefore be subject to an extensive interpretation. The same rule applies to the local element: so that, in the case of the violation of a church, it cannot be extended to the contiguous cemetery, and vice versa. This is in accordance with the Code of Canon Law and in contrast with previous ecclesiastical legislation.
By reason of the violation, the sacred place, although it does not lose its original consecration, is nevertheless contaminated. Various are the consequences. The immediate effect of the violation is that in such profaned places divine ceremonies cannot be celebrated. Indeed, it is prescribed that if the violation occur during sacred functions, these must be immediately interrupted. To repair the ultimate consequences of the violation, the institution of reconciliation is required (q.V. CHURCH, B, II, 17). Other acts, although not constituting a violation in the strict sense, are considered offensive to the nature of sacred places and are therefore forbidden in them. Among such profane acts must be reckoned civil judgments, business dealings, theatrical performances, etc. By express reference, the same discipline laid down with regard to churches is applied also to cemeteries (can. 1207).
The Code of Canon Law imposes upon those who perpetrate the aforesaid crimes the penalty of interdict; and moreover grants to the Ordinary the faculty of applying other suitable penalties. Violators of sepulchres, besides being punished with interdict, are ipso facto struck with infamy, and if they are clerics they are deposed.
In Italian criminal law, the violation of churches, sepulchres and consecrated cemeteries is considered as a criminal act directed against religious sentiment. Article 404 of the Penal Code contemplates offences against religion by means of contempt for sacred things. The things to which this sanction refers are indicated by an indefinite expression: “things which form the object of worship, whether consecrated to worship or necessarily destined for the exercise of worship.” The object comprised in the meaning of these latter expressions includes, among other things, churches, sepulchres and consecrated cemeteries. But this requisite, to which the law refers, must not be understood as “consecration” in the strict sense. Therefore, those places also which have become sacred by means of constitutive blessing are to be considered as such (cf. can. 1497 § 2).
The law moreover lays down as a condition of the punishability of the act that the contempt must have taken place in a public place or one open to the public or in a place destined for worship. But for this purpose, a merely presumed publicity is sufficient: so that the act is punishable even if, in the particular case, the offence was committed in secret. Consequently, in the contempt of churches, cemeteries, etc., publicity is but one aspect of the crime itself. From this point of view, semi-public oratories and domestic chapels are fully equated with churches and temples. However, for the exact application of the law, it is advisable to have recourse to the provisions of the Code of Canon Law, according to which sacred places are those destined for divine worship or for the burial of the faithful by means of consecration or liturgical blessing (can. 1154).
In the concept of contempt are generally included all those acts by which it is considered that the sacred place has not been duly respected. Such acts may consist either in material acts against the thing or in immaterial acts such as words, speeches, insults, defamations, drawings, etc. It is necessary, finally, that the injurious activity be carried out with specific intent, that is, with the will and consciousness of despising and insulting religion. It is clear that if the things thus despised are also damaged or destroyed, there is a concurrence of crimes (arts. 404 and 635, n. 3 of the Penal Code). The Italian Code moreover punishes with imprisonment from 1 to 5 years whoever violates a tomb, a sepulchre or an urn. The object of the violation is any construction made in a place of sepulture for the deposition of human remains. For the crime to be constituted, it is necessary that the sepulchre actually contain human remains. For this crime specific intent is not required: the motive of the crime may consist either in contempt or in theft, damage, etc. In these latter cases the same action gives rise to different juridical consequences, thus constituting a concurrence of crimes.